History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / SuperMarioBros

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] wth few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioKun'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' and later an AllCGICartoon film being greenlit, but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were.

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] wth few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioKun'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' and later an AllCGICartoon film being greenlit, but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were.

*** The ''Mario'' series is likewise known for every possible thing having eyes, even ''hills'', but this wouldn't happen until ''The Lost Levels'', which was made without much input from Miyamoto; before that, the only thing that had eyes was Lakitu's cloud and Invincibility Stars, which are also called Starmen for that purpose. It's worth noting that later games produced with Miyamoto's input, such as ''New Super Mario Bros.'', feature inanimate objects with eyes much less if at all.

*** Somewhat related to the above, the powerups also worked differently. If, for example, you hit a block as Super or Fire Mario, causing a Fire Flower to appear, and were hit and turned back to Small Mario before picking up the powerup, the Fire Flower will only upgrade you to Super Mario, not Fire Mario. In later games, picking up a Fire Flower or other second stage powerup as Small Mario will upgrade you to that powerup stage, and while power up blocks usually give mushrooms when you're small, there are possibilities to get second-tier powerups.
*** Other oddities: Bouncing on enemies gives you barely any height at all -- massive GoombaSpringboard boosts wouldn't appear in the ''Mario'' series until ''The Lost Levels'', which may lead to some DamnYouMuscleMemory in the first game. The timer also ticks away at a much faster rate than in later games, making it almost necessary to speedrun the few lengthy levels and almost spelling certain death if you kept taking the wrong path in some of the more labyrinthe castles. Shells also cannot be grabbed by holding the B button (a feature that was introduced with ''Super Mario Bros. 3''). Likewise, ? blocks cannot be hit underwater; Mario just bumps into them as if they were plain.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'': Originally conceived as ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'', the game marked the debut of several enemies that would become regulars in the ''Mario'' series, but some of them are portrayed here differently. For example, the two red dots on the Ninji sprites are depicted in both the game's official artwork and ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' as red fangs, but later Ninji portrayals reinterpret those dots as big buttons or BlushStickers. Bob-Ombs have arms and lack the familiar windup keys from their backs (from ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' onwards, it's the other way around, with some exceptions). Pokeys are colored green instead of yellow, and ''can'' be mounted safely (in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', the only way to ride them safely is with the Spin Jump). Lastly, Shy Guys have a slightly shorter height, looking more like {{Waddling Head}}s; later games made their torsos look more visible.

** Mario's [[JumpPhysics jump physics]] are noticably different from the sequel and the ''Wario Land'' games: For instance, when Mario jumps diagonally, you can't control how it moves (although you can when it jumps straight up) and he maintains no momentum.

** This is the only game where Wario is depicted using a Fire Flower, like Mario. Later games either gave him a [[CoolHat hat that spits fire]][[note]]a seadragon for just fire or a traditional dragon for fire and flight[[/note]] or [[IncendiaryExponent set his whole body on fire]].

** Another interesting example comes in the form of the Skewers (giant spiked columns) found in the castles in the game. In their original appearance, they're treated as part of the level geometry, so being caught underneath one is an instant kill. In later games on the other hand, they're treated like enemies/sprites, so Mario and co will only ever take normal damage from being caught underneath/in the path of one.

** The game is, to date, the only 3D game where both the oxygen meter (for swimming) and the health meter were one and same (they get separate meters in ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]]'', the two ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 games]], and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Odyssey]]''). This created a loophole which allowed Mario to regain health simply by jumping into water and coming up for air.

*** The first game is the only one where Mario and Luigi can switch their positions. In every following installment, Mario always takes the lead, and Luigi always sticks behind him. In the remake of the first game, the Mario Bros. cannot switch positions at will, and only do so depending on which field move is selected, with the default (normal jumps) having Mario in front.

** In the original arcade game, the GoombaStomp didn't work -- you had to knock the enemies on their backs before you could take them out. For players coming from later Mario games, this could become a problem as early enemies include turtles that closely resemble the Koopas in the later games; they can't be stomped in Mario Bros. This is why some {{Nostalgia Level}}s based on ''Mario Bros.'' replace the enemies with TheSpiny, which was firmly established as the standard non-stompable enemy.

** This was the first ''Mario'' platformer to feature a space-themed world (in fact, it is the TropeNamer for SpaceZone). However, Mario wears a space suit while exploring these levels, whereas in later games with space worlds (such as the ''Galaxy'' games and ''3D World'') he doesn't need to.

** This is the first game to have the "athletic" levels have a separate theme than the game's normal level theme. It's also the only game with an athletic theme that's not a remix of the game's main theme.

** The remake for the DS has four playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi... and ''Wario'', being playable in a mainstream ''Mario'' game for the first time. And to date, the last time: this game came out just a year after ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' completely changed the character's paradigm and resulted in the "classic" Wario relegated to spinoffs only. Seeing Wario playable in a headliner game like ''Super Mario 64'' is very odd to a player nowadays; if the game were made now, a character like Toad or Toadette would be the likely choice for a fourth character.

** The Gallery Corner only had the non-playable demos, which would become the Museum from ''2'' onward.

''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', being the epitome of the [[VideoGameLongRunner video game long-runner]] and spanning a constant stream of games and other media across multiple platforms, has evolved drastically in characterization, gameplay, and designs over the course of its decades-long history.

** In some respects, the game was an instance of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for much of 3D gaming. For a lack of other games to compare with, entire levels quite visibly hanging in the middle of nothing were perfectly fine back then, but would have been considered signs of an ObviousBeta mere years later. It was also very cubic, even by later N64 standards, and thus unusual in a series that tends to prefer round shapes whenever possible.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'': Originally conceived as ''VideoGame/DokiDokiPanic'', the game marked the debut of several enemies that would become regulars in the ''Mario'' series, but some of them are portrayed here differently. For example, the two red dots on the Ninji sprites are depicted in both the game's official artwork and ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' as red fangs, but later Ninji portrayals reinterpret those dots as big buttons or cheek-blushes. Bob-Ombs have arms and lack the familiar windup keys from their backs (from ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' onwards, it's the other way around, with some exceptions). Pokeys are colored green instead of yellow, and ''can'' be mounted safely (in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', the only way to ride them safely is with the Spin Jump). Lastly, Shy Guys have a slightly shorter height, looking more like {{Waddling Head}}s; later games made their torsos look more visible.

** Yoshi's body is longer and thinner than in later games, and the English version can't decide if he's a dragon or a dinosaur (later media would settle on "dinosaur"). Also, the Japanese version refers to him as "Yossy".

** This is the only game where Wario is depicted using a Fire Flower, like Mario.

* In the early 2000s, the series toyed around with full voice-acting. This could be seen in games like ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and ''VideoGame/MarioGolf: Toadstool Tour''. Since the late 2000s, the series has predominantly stuck to VoiceGrunting and short, two or three word phrases.

** Character designs: What we'd call "Small Mario" in later titles appears to be his normal height in the first game. Indeed, in the game's manual, Mario's mushroom-less form is called simply "Mario" and is treated as Mario's canonical size, with big Mario referred to as "Super Mario". Later games would reverse this, calling big Mario just "Mario" and Mario's mushroom-less form "Small Mario". In addition, Mario has red overalls and a brown shirt in the first game, while Luigi has white overalls and a green shirt, instead of their trademark blue overalls with a red/green shirt and WhiteGloves. Due to palette limitations, Luigi's hair also appears green. With fire power, the brothers look identical. In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', Mario and Luigi lack the blue color on their clothes, although ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' managed to get the colors right. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' has Mario wearing defined jeans with back pockets, which wouldn't be shown in detail again until ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''.

** Bowser has a computerized voice like in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' rather than being voiced by an actual voice actor, and the "power-up loss" and "coin" sounds are reused from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' rather than ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''.

** The remake for the DS has four playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi... and ''Wario'', being playable in a mainstream ''Mario'' game for the first time. And to date, the last time: this game came out just a year after ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' completely changed the character's paradigm and resulted in the "classic" Wario relegated to spinoffs only. Seeing Wario playable in a headliner game like ''Super Mario 64'' is very odd to a player nowadays; if the game were made now, a character like Toad or Toadette would be the likely choice for a third character.

!! Examples, let's a go!

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] wth few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioKun'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' and later an AllCGICartoon film being greenlit, but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were.

** Mario was originally written as a middle-aged man in his 40s or maybe even 50s in the arcade titles. In the earliest arcade titles, this was true in Japan as well, though around 1986, Mario started being depicted as a younger man with [[AnimationAgingAnatomy large youthful eyes]] and the suave Creator/ToruFuruya acting as his voice in animated productions. Outside of Japan, Mario continued to have gruff middle aged voice actors. By the mid-'90s, in the USA as well, he had been aged down significantly to be Peach's age. WordOfGod is that he is between 24 and 25 years old.

** Yoshi was [[https://i.stack.imgur.com/44Y33.jpg less-anthropomorphized]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' compared to how he would look later on. Certain spin-offs, such as ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', also stayed closer to Yoshi's original depiction.

** Mario was originally written as a middle-aged man in his 40s or maybe even 50s. By the mid-'90s he had been aged down significantly to be Peach's age. WordOfGod is that he is between 24 and 25 years old.

** In some respects, the game was an instance of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for much of 3D gaming. For a lack of other games to compare with, entire levels quite visibly hanging in the middle of nothing were perfectly fine back then, but would have been considered signs of an ObviousBeta mere years later. It was also very cubic, even by later N64 standards, and thus unusual in a series that seems to prefer round shapes whenever possible.

** The first ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' is your standard Mario plot with RPG elements, and the "Paper" aspect is merely an art choice with no effect on the gameplay, whereas the sequels each had their own paper-related gimmick (The shapeshifting curses in ''Thousand Year Door'', the 2D-3D switching in ''Super Paper Mario'' and the stickers in ''Sticker Star'').

* The original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' is very different compared to the mainstream [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and Franchise/DonkeyKong games. Mario's jumping skills were less impressive than in later games, as Mario had to climb ladders if he wanted to go up a level. Unusually for a 2D Mario game, Mario can suffer from FallingDamage (which in practice, as Mario was also a OneHitPointWonder, was more like Falling Death). The game seemed to take place in the real world rather than a fictional one, like the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario had to rescue not Princess Peach, but his regular girlfriend Pauline. The game's backstory also revealed that Mario was kind of a [[DesignatedHero dick]], as he was the [[CharacterizationMarchesOn abusive owner towards Donkey Kong]]. He was even the BigBad in ''Donkey Kong Jr.''! [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, DK completely lacked his trademarked tie]], though this is explainable if you believe that the DK in this game is [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry Cranky Kong]].

** Pauline was originally depicted as a blonde in illustrations for the arcade and Famicom versions of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', but became a brunette in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong94'', presumably to distinguish her from Peach (who at that point had already appeared in more games than Pauline and was a more recognizable character as a result). Her sprite always had her as a brunette anyway.
** Yoshi was [[https://i.stack.imgur.com/44Y33.jpg less-anthropomorphized]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' compared to how he would look later on. Certain spin-offs, such as ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', also stayed closer to Yoshi's original depiction.

** Wario's design is somewhat more grotesque and deranged than in later games, not to mention he's depicted here as being about three times Mario's size. Additionally, his small form looks more goblin-like than in subsequent appearances.